"Beast, Answer My Call!" V1 Chapter 6 - The Demon Witch
Orphen was waiting.
The only major road leading north from the city of Totokanta was the Stairway Road. It was often said that during summer the road was like a long, narrow jewel, but it was still only early summer. The verdant landscape, which was highly acclaimed by travelers, wasn't on the edge of that endlessly colorful summer, but was still a wonderfully youthful green. This season the wind was blowing quite often, almost without interruption. Today, the wind was still going. It was pleasant during the afternoon, and Orphen was sat down on the banks by the side of the road, staring to one side toward the city of Totokanta.
He'd been waiting for a long time. He didn't look tired of waiting, but on the contrary, he seemed to be wishing that the time would last even longer. He leaned his sword over his shoulder and tapped the crude scabbard with his fingers.
Then, from the direction he'd been staring, a small cloud of dust arose from the road — dust from a carriage. As the cloud grew larger, so did the sound of horseshoes and wheels. The carriage was a two-horse carriage and not that big. The dark roof was within sight now. Orphen slowly rose to his feet, and stood in the middle of the road, spreading his hands.
"Stop!"
He shouted loudly. He could see the man on the coachman's stand pulling the reins with a sickening whine.
The carriage stopped. On the side, "The Continental Sorcerer Alliance" was written in gold-trimmed letters.
The man on the drivers seat, about 40 years old, jumped down from the platform and strode toward Orphen, who was standing in front of him. His shoulders were hunched and his face flushed with anger, but when he saw the dragon emblem that Orphen had quickly pulled out of his shirt, his demeanor changed and he started stumbling over his words a bit.
"What in the world is going on?"
Orphen replied in a tedious tone.
"... Not that it's a big deal, but how far are we from Totokanta?"
"About 3 kilometers."
"Then just run there and come back, it'll take you a couple of minutes. Go on."
"What?"
"Shut up and do what I say. Run from here, touch the main gate of Totokanta, and come back."
"... But..."
"Will you just go already!?"
Orphen shouted at him, prompting him to yelp and run back towards Totokanta at once. He stood there until he was far enough away. After a few dozen breezes blew by, he turned toward the carriage. Holding his sword, he finally spoke.
His voice sounded more sad than angry.
"Come on out. You at least expected me to be waiting here for you, didn't do?"
Orphen had prepared himself to a certain extent — so he had no regrets. The only thing that remained was doubt. It wasn't that he didn't have faint hope. Rather, he wondered if he had been completely mistaken in what he'd thought.
He watched the side door of the carriage open and a tall man step out, and in that moment, Orphen was caught by the sensation that all of these things had come together.
"What are you doing, Krylancelo?"
Childman touched his foot to the ground, mumbling curiously. In his hand he carried the old-fashioned Sword of Baldanders. Orphen had never had the opportunity to observe the sword closely before, but he still felt that he'd grown to know it as well as his own limbs, and for quite some time. The sword that had been left behind after Azalie departed five years ago, covered in her blood. The sword that had been taken out of the Everlasting residence a few days before, and now, this sword was carried by Childman.
"You know why I'm here."
"... I have no idea, actually. I'm sure there were those who thought your last act was a betrayal, but I don't think so — After all, it was you who found the monster and lured it out. So as far as your punishment, or rather, execution goes, I've given the higher-ups reason to think twice."
"You've got an insidious tongue, don't you? It doesn't suit you, Childman."
As Orphen said this in an implicative tone, he could see Childman's normally calm expression twitch.
Childman was silent for a moment. However, when he eventually sighed and opened his mouth again, his voice was no longer the way it had been.
"...How long have you known?"
"When you put the finishing touches on the monster. He left a dying message. For me."
Orphen continued, staring at Childman's strange form.
"How did this happen, Azalie? I'd like you to tell me, if you can... It's about time you answered my call."
Childman was not a handsome man, but he'd always exuded some kind of guru-like charm, with a cool, unwavering demeanor and a spirit of devotion to a rigid discipline. It was only then that Orphen finally realized that this charm had somehow been replaced by something else.
It was unmistakably the instinctive charm that Azalie had possessed until five years ago.
"... What are you going to do about it?"
It was Azalie's voice that answered — the voice of Azalie as she was five years ago — and that was the first thing she asked. She smiled a smile that seemed a little bit sneaky while toying with the Sword of Baldanders still held in her hand. With Childman's fingers.
The Sword of Baldanders seemed contentedly tucked into its archaic scabbard — represented by the emblem of the moon; was it Dortin who had said that? Either way, between the hilt and the blade of the sword, there was an elaborate carving of an eerie beast on a disc-shaped moon. It wasn't that unlike the creature Azalie had turned into.
Orphen shifted his gaze from the sword to its owner. He answered decisively.
"I'll decide that after I hear you out."
"... That's a good answer. I noticed it when we first met again, but you've grown stronger, Krylancelo."
"Its been 5 years, and I guess I haven't gotten any smarter."
"Maybe so, but I really love that aspect about you — I believed you had the makings to be a better sorcerer than Hartia, or even Childman. Yes — if I had to choose a partner, it would've been you."
Azalie shrugged.
"You're right, I might've known you were here waiting for me — It would've been terribly boring if you weren't. You're the only one who saw through me. Not Hartia, or the Damsel's Orisons. Only you truly understand me."
"... I think it's time for you to talk. We don't have many hours before he comes back. It would be terribly cruel to make him go back and forth a second time."
"I agree."
Azalie lightly grumbled, followed by a bleak smile across Childman's face.
"I have nothing to say about my failure to use the Sword's magic five years ago. Because of it, I was forced to wander the continent in that monstrous form, dodging the pursuit of Childman and other skilled black-magic sorcerers. They wanted to eliminate me so that they could keep my failure from ruining the Tower's image. Rather — it's more like — they wanted to destroy the evidence. They thought I no longer had any sentience."
Azalie saw a sly glint in his eyes, but she sniffed and continued.
"It was no joke... I had consciousness — For five years, I was fully aware, running away from Childman's relentless pursuits. And in those five years...? My cute little brother became a full grown man."
As she said this, she chuckled, as if she had felt her own words, but her expression immediately sharpened again.
"I think it was about a month ago. I realized that if I didn't do something about it, I'd eventually go insane. Even if I didn't, Childman would finish me off one day, because he was tired of chasing me. So I've been trying to find a way out of this situation."
"... You, of course, thought that the Sword of Baldanders would be enough to restore you to your normal form."
Orphen murmured, and Azalie nodded.
"But the Sword was missing after Childman sealed it somewhere five years ago."
"So you thought it'd be a good idea to have Childman himself track it down."
"I had to stop Childman's pursuit anyway. You know that I'm also good at white magic. I took advantage of an opportunity and swapped minds with Childman. Just like him. It was a gamble, to say the least, to see if such a powerful magic would work, but I won that bet."
"... And then you killed Childman's men."
Orphen succumbed to a darker tone of voice.
She shrugged her shoulders and kept on.
"They've been aiming for me for five years, so to me it was kill or be killed."
Orphen wasn't quite convinced by her words, but he looked back at her without saying a word. She seemed to agree with him and continued.
"It's ironic, Childman thought it was impossible to restore me to my former self — but when the time came for him to do the same, he flew headlong towards the Sword of Baldanders. I followed his trail, which led me to Totokanta, and when Childman flew into the house, I was sure that the sword was there. As Childman, I asked Hartia to help me — and you know what happened next. As a result, I had to kill Childman in order to get the sword back."
"It's not just due to your personal circumstances."
Orphen frowned,
"You had to get rid of Childman. He had killed all the elites of the Tower of Fang, after all. You'd put the blame on him, and then you'd get the Sword of Baldanders. After that, you could just go anywhere and try the transformation magic again. You could change into any form you wanted."
"... I'm not that naive."
Azalie said with a possibly wry smile.
"Why do you think I failed five years ago? And why does it have to take the form of a Sword if all it does is change a person's appearance? The Sword of Baldanders is literally a weapon — in other words, it can transform the person it cuts into anything you want. It could turn them into stone, an animal, or whatever else. However, I thought that if I cut myself, I could change into whatever I wanted. Only, the pain of the wound broke my concentration, and I ended up looking like a monster."
"Even so, you're still going to try it, aren't you?"
"Yes, I'm still going to try. So listen, my question is this... What are you going do?"
Azalie asked in a superior tone, as if she were trying to provoke him. In reality, she was much taller as Childman, but Orphen was sure that he was looking at the same sorceress who'd been looking up at him teasingly from her chair in the Tower of Fang several years ago.
Orphen stared into her eyes. Her figure remained the same as Childman's, only her voice and her eyes had truly become completely hers. Orphen opened his right hand, which he'd had tightly clenched, and pulled his sword from the scabbard held in his left.
"What are you going to do with a sword?"
Azalie asked. Orphen shook his head and mumbled.
"If you'd been my lover — I would've agreed with you, but no. You killed Childman."
"Didn't I already tell you this? It was kill or be killed."
"Someone as clever as you could've avoided murder, but you did this in self defense..."
Orphen felt his voice catch in his throat like a cry.
"Are you calling me a murderer?"
Azalie asked in a questioning tone, and Orphen looked back at her with the answer.
"I respected you. You betrayed that."
"Isn't that because you were building me up all on your own? What did you want me to do? Run around in the distance as some monster forever?"
"There are some things you shouldn't betray, Azalie. You shouldn't have killed him."
"He tried to kill me—"
"No!"
Orphen shouted as he swung his sword sideways in the midst of his tantrum.
"Why do you think he sealed the Sword with his own hands? — Without handing it over to the elders of the Tower. Why did he pursue you himself? Why? He knew he could turn you back. He wanted to save you with his own hands."
"... That's just your guess."
"At your funeral, he told me it was impossible to restore you — Impossible for me, that is. Yet, he thought that he could do it."
As Orphen rambled, he saw Azalie — Childman whose spirit was dominated by hers — twitch. To Orphen, it was a strange sight. For the first time in his life, the face of the cool-headed man who'd never shown an ounce of agitation was showing expression, having been taken over by Azalie's emotionally rich spirit. He continued.
"Yeah, he did. In hindsight, he was just taking a much more practical measure than I did at the time, just as he always did. By pretending to be in pursuit of you and using the organizational power of the Damsel's Orisons to find your whereabouts — considering that I had spent the last five years just wandering aimlessly from place to place across the continent, it certainly shows that Childman was a few steps ahead of me."
Orphen — He was so worried, it was making him tired. She looked over at him with a curious expression on her face — or rather, a look that seemed to be staring off into space. She sighed.
"I hate this. Why do you think I used the Sword five years ago?"
Azalie pulled out the Sword of Baldanders as she spoke.
"I wanted that stiff to recognize me, for the woman I am. I wanted to be worthy of him."
Sleek and straight, the Sword of Baldanders touched the ground at an angle from Azalie's hand, gouging the earth slightly with the tip. Orphen shifted his gaze from Childman's sturdy body to the scabbard as Azalie discarded it. The dry leather case fell to the ground, bouncing against a small rock that jutted out of the street.
Orphen, too, held up his sword as she did.
"Why, then, did you try to kill him?"
"I don't know... Maybe because he'd already served his purpose."
"Purpose?"
"He recognized me, didn't he?"
She spoke in a self-deprecating way, holding the Sword of Baldanders up before Orphen's eyes.
"Azalie..."
Orphen murmured with a growl in his throat, but she only shook her head.
"I'm just kidding, but you have to understand — I didn't want this to happen. It's just the way it turned out. I couldn't have made a better choice."
"............"
Orphen silently took a step closer to her, but before he did so, he asked another question.
"Then I suppose it's by choice that we're here pointing our swords at each other. Just as you had to stop Childman from talking, I have to do the same now that I know you're alive."
"... I'm not so sure about that. After all, it's a matter of trust. You're trustworthy. After I return to my original form, can I be yours?"
"Please don't betray me again — I've always respected you."
She nodded silently.
The gesture startled Orphen a little, but Azalie quickly readjusted her sword with a stern look — with Childman's eyes, and Childman's face. The early summer sunlight shone back on Sword of Baldanders' blade. Orphen closed his eyes, then opened them again, as if that light had seeped into his eyes.
He suddenly imagined something silly — Hartia, Childman, Azalie, and his other old friends, now in reminiscence, testing his strength in turn.
(Azalie—)
With mixed feelings, Orphen tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. He knew what he had to do. For that reason, it'd be pointless if she were to kill him in a place like this.
Azalie raised her sword. Since Childman's height was considerably taller than Orphen's, the position of the tip of the sword also looked as if it could pierce the sky from his point of view. However, Childman wouldn't have raised his sword — the former assassin preferred weapons such as knives and steel wires to long swords in the first place. Azalie, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy a spectacular cavalry match.
That's Azalie all right, Orphen thought to himself. It wasn't Childman. Still, if he thought about it, that was the only way they had truly come together...
Azalie took a quick step forward in Childman's body.
It was an old habit, Orphen remembered. She never wasted time on hesitation. She always rushed right over and won the match without so much as breaking a sweat. Orphen dropped the tip of his knife a little, as if inviting her to join him.
Azalie seemed to have made up her mind at the very first step, and then, without even pausing to breath, she came running in — one step — and then another — and then another — and then the cutting edge of the sword was already within range—
Fwoooo—
Before he could think, he heard a sound. The sound of metal blade cutting through the air. Such a small sound that you'd have to listen very carefully to hear it.
Orphen didn't move. Her powerful blow hit him in the shoulder.
However, at that moment, an uncontrollable, ferocious force surged up from within his body — a force that made the air inside his body seem to burst outwards all at once. The force caught the Sword of Baldanders, which had dug into his shoulder, and sent it flying back in a single leap.
Neither of them moved until the sword sailed through the air and landed with a thud behind Orphen. Azalie looked down at her — or rather, Childman's — empty hands with a blank stare.
"You avoided any vital points, Azalie."
Orphen switched his word to his right hand and approached her swiftly, unarmed.
"But you didn't stand a chance anyway. You remember the ring, don't you? The one that protects you from danger, but can only be used once?"
"... It's not on your finger, though, is it?"
She mumbled as she backed away.
Orphen shrugged.
"You don't have to put it on your finger. If only I could be the perfect owner for it. Still, it wasn't any problem swallowing such a small ring."
As he said it, he patted his stomach with his left hand. Azalie's face was tight, stunned to see this deception. When Orphen took another step toward her, she didn't retreat this time, and instead burst out laughing.
"You're not — You're not kidding! You're such an idiot! What kind of plan is that—"
Orphen brought his face closer to Azalie, who was hunched over in booming laughter.
"Let's settle this, Azalie."
Azalie quickly pulled back her smile and, from a crouch, tried to pounce him with catlike swiftness—
Orphen brought his sword down, and its blade cleaved her belly in a sideways strike. The feeling of that metal sword digging into her flesh traveled clear down her arm.
As the impact went straight through, the Demon Witch's body fell backwards with a loud scream.
Table of Contents
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Business Day Call of Reminiscence The Revenge of Shrimp Man Baldanders 'Hunting' Night Demon Witch |